I decided to study literature just because I would get to spend four years doing what I loved most in the world, reading even though I could easily get to law school and have a much better paid job than I now do. I've never regretted it. Those four years have been hands down the best in my life. For me the books that always speak to me are Mrs Dalloway, the Waves and Brothers Karamazov.
I am 63 and have read all of my life, well from about 4, and now get quite panicked that there is so much left to read. Particularly get worried in book shops, am I alone here?
No, you are not alone. I am 62 and I realize I probably won't be able to read all the books I own! It makes me want to retire right now, even though I have a year and a half left until I should. I wonder after I pass, who will care for my books. I know, it's silly, but they are my friends.
If you don't know the cover of The Sea, The Sea is a print known as The Great Wave by Katusushika Hokusai that is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
These were so lovely to hear about 😊📚❤️When my Mum was sick in the summer, everything was very stressful and I was barely reading and I picked up The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida. That book just swept me away into its pages and I was just so grateful for it being there at just the right moment. So yes the power of books is huge, I completely agree!
Books have been the great love of my life. I could read before I went to school. I studied literature at university which I think is why I now DNF so few books. I recently read David Copperfield (in preparation for Demon Copperhead) and it reminded me how much I have always loved reading Dickens. That experience has spurred me on to revisit more classics in the coming years.
When I was in school I loved English class. We got to pick out books to read and write book reports. I miss when they used to have the Scholastic Book Fair’s. You could buy books from the form they gave us as students. If you fall out of love with reading you might try going to a bookstore, read a festive book, try a book by a favorite author. I have always liked reading romance books.
I only began to read once I left university (scientist 🙄) but it was the divine combination of 100 years of solitude and Mrs Dalloway that started me off. My favourite books always do something more than any film could do so Ducks Newburyport and Lincoln in the bardo come to mind.
I have never been in a reading slump, thank goodness. That would seriously throw me into despair. If it were to occur, I would pick up Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
I vividly remember the first book I learned how to read and how much I wanted to read it to everyone I knew. I just started keeping a reading journal this year and I really like it (in fact I just ordered my 2023 diary for this purpose). Sometimes I get into a reading rut where nothing seems good to me and then it feels hard to pick up a new book, but as soon as I read something great I am right back in the reading zone.
Thanks to your glowing review I have now started The Waves 😊 I have been in a real slump. Every book is just meh, nothing really appeals. I read every day, but the love for the books is not there and that’s sad because they are good books… so hoping this can get me to love my reads again.
Thank you very much for the video Eric . A lovely journey through your influencal books that provide connections and have maintained your love of books.
Sometimes I get quite despondent when I have started to read a couple of books I'm not enjoying but then feel quite excited when something good comes along. Such a one recently was Elizabeth Taylor's In a Summer Season. Reading Hard Times at university put me off reading Dickens for a long time but then I was blown away by King Lear. A good teacher can make all the difference!
I have always loved books. I studied English and humanities and I make my living in publishing. Books are everything and when I find myself in a reading funk I just take a break, read a lovely cozy mystery and try again.
It’s thanksgiving week here in the U.S. I’m deeply thankful for books and all that they’ve given me over the years. And I’m also thankful for your videos!
After years of reading very little, I read two books that totally broke me out of my slump and started me reading voraciously, The Many by Wyl Menmuir and The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. Two very different books that awakened different parts of my reading brain. I still have Popisho here waiting to be read.
Oh yes! The Many is so good! So atmospheric and an expertly constructed narrative. I still need to read The Silent Companions so thank you for putting it back on my TBR! 😊📚
I really connect with you about staying awake late into the night because you lose time in the book you are reading. My bookcase is full of so many adventures that I am yet to take and I have taken recommendations from the books you have mentioned. I have just finished The Collector and there were so many points in the book that I loved that have now promoted me to start a book journal like you said.
My work years took me away from fiction to non fiction. I have now retired and fallen in love again with fiction again. Two book that has stayed with me throughout my life have been Jane Eyre and Rebecca. Then with my own children , who were read too each night developed their love for books. Our daughter taking that love into her career path by attaining a First class Degree, her Distinction in her Masters and now completing her PhD. Her brother with his love of history both have introduced me to books I would never have chosen. Namely Sci-fi - the beautiful Lathe of Heaven, Flowers for Algernon and The Stars, My Destination and historical works like Pillars of the Earth. I now try to read many genres and from different countries. I do occasionally find i cannot face a book ( I've also other interests such as embroidery and crafts and then there is my wee garden) But returning to slimmer novels ,
When I took a class on modern British literature, I read a lot of Virginia Woolf. Her first story ever published has stayed with me since I read it and inspired me to attempt short stories. The Mark on the Wall is stirring and something I think about every time I hear her name. The Waves is fluid and deep and so lovely.
Fascinating, thank you. Some real food for thought. I'm definitely planning to check out the Ishiguro. By the way, cheeky question. Did you pick up the English/Welsh (the Scots don't do it, to my knowledge) habit of saying "sat" instead of "sitting" since living in London? I remember having it drummed into me, growing up, as we don't (apart from saying "I was stood," instead of "I was standing") do this to any other verb and I've never heard anybody from any other English speaking country do it, nor anyone, for whom English is a second language! 😉😉
This was great! I agree that The Waves is excellent, very intellectual and very touching at the same time. Studying To The Lighthouse was a landmark for me. What really stretched my mind and propelled me forward as a reader was studying Proust, which I know sounds pretentious, but he creates this vast, exciting theme park of what literature can do, and he's also the funniest novelist, I think. I think backlist reading can rejuvenate, set against an endless diet of new stuff. I enjoyed Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard this year, and also Iris Murdoch's early novels- The Sea, The Sea is next, so thanks for this, The Unconsoled too.
That's great! I've only read a bit of Proust but know I really need to *dedicate* myself to his writing at some point. Hope you enjoy The Sea, The Sea! 🌊
The Unconsoled is great - I love the broom cupboard incident - very funny. I just finished a book that featured on one of your videos - Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - just fabulous, and really re-awakened my interest in characters in fiction. Jeanie is just such a great character. Never would have known about this book or read it apart from your videos - so thanks!!
I had the usual slump during undergrad. And as a stem major I purposefully avoided literature classes because I didn’t want to destroy my love for reading. Still slumped nonetheless. Ironically my last semester I had to take one last class and the only option was a writing class and we read (among a few other things) Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. It’s a very weird book, well written and has tons of problematic elements to it, but learning how to engage with that really opened my eyes to a new form of reading and thinking
I really like how passionate you are about reading. I've been hooked on the classics lately. I read Jane Austen's "Emma" as a starter and also as a recommendation from a friend, then Frankenstein and Dracula and then the Bronte sisters, and then the Russian greats: Tolstoy "Anna Karenina" and Dostoyevsky "Crime and Punishment". These books have made reading fun again.
I definitely fell out of love with reading after my 2 english degrees, and it took a few years to get back to it, which I'm pleased with now. I'm reading my way through Virginia Woolf's novels and I'm almost at The Waves, so I'm excited now, I was waning a bit on the Woolf there for a sec haha and really need to pick up Iris Murdoch! I totally agree that This One Sky Day was so inventive and different, it was an experience!
I have read The Sea, The Sea, The Unconsoled and This One Sky Day. I feel that they are quite similar to eachother. All very magical and dreamlike. I LOVED all 3 of them. The Unconsoled is soooo good! I loved reading as a child and teen but weirdly fell out of love with it at University. I studied English Literature and History. I think alot of what you said resonates about being forced to do something. I really didn't enjoy Virginia Woolf at Uni. I just didn't get it!! I would not have been able to just pick Virginia off the shelf and be able to appreciate her writing as much as you. Well, certainly not back then! I haven't read The Waves though, so maybe I will feel differently after I read this as I know you rate it MOST highly. I read To the Lighthouse (again) earlier this year and still feel like I am recovering 🙈😭 The book which got me out of my slump was Misery by Stephen King. I'm so happy it did! I can't imagine my life without books in it anymore. Sometimes I feel regret when I think of all the years I wasted not reading. I'm definitely going to check out The Waves and Mrs Engles! So many books, so little time!
I read Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea long time ago. The narrative language is what stayed with me more than the actual story, which I seem to remember was about an aging actor or something? Or am I confusing books. Now that I recall Philip Roth must have been trying his hand on the trope also when he wrote The Humbling. It might be worth your while to pair the books and see what you think. Is a very short book also. Thanks once again for an enjoyable video. I started reading Katherine Rundell upon your recommendation and am really enjoying Super-Infite🌻
I am reading Mrs. Engels and absolutely loving it. The way he creates tension between two characters is terrific. Currently reading the scene between Mrs. Burns and the nun she goes to.
@@EricKarlAnderson I'm so loving it. I love books which have such scenes with a kind-of face-off between two characters. Almost like a good screenplay.
I was a big independent reader all through school and maintained it even in high school. When I started college, to study Art History, and took English 101 the freshman fall semester we read 8 Modern Essayists and I first experienced and fell in love with Baldwin, Woolf and Didion. Goodbye to All That remains a touchstone that I reread most years and began my intense love affair with New York City. By the end of college I was completely burned out on reading, just the volume and intensity of what needed to be read sucked any pleasure out of it and I no longer read for myself. Also, I was always a slow reader, and the timeframe of forced completion weighed heavily on me. I had put off the last English class, English 3, until the final semester and was completely dreading it. The class ended up being all about collections of short stories, Malamud, Vonnegut and others. Miraculously I found my way back to reading and the joy of it. I always encourage readers in a slump to try short stories, or essays, because those bite sized chunks make it achievable and really nothing beats a perfectly written short story to fall in love with reading again. But more recently in March 2020 I stopped reading. I didn’t read for a whole year, not one book. I couldn’t concentrate to do it or take any pleasure. Surprisingly, the book that brought me back was Red Comet, one of the longest, most complicated books I’ve ever read and it took me over 6 weeks and 3 library checkouts to do it. Plath had always been another touchstone for me and I’ve read numerous biographies on her already. But somehow I couldn’t miss this one, that did so much to restore her humanity and truth and give voice to much of her early unpublished work. In a way it was a godsend. I’m closing in on reading 200 books this year, far beyond any amount I’ve ever read in a year or two years at that matter.
Greetings from India 🇮🇳 just loved this video where you talk about The sea the sea and The unconsoled that are two of my favourite books 📚 I was deeply inspired by the unconsoled and it’s so nice to see that you enjoyed it too. Do keep making your videos and continue sharing your thoughts on books. A a big thank you for sharing your thoughts 💭 with us
I stopped reading for a number of years due to work, babies, general life but started reading regularly again last year. Pachinko was the book that ignited my reading obsession again!
Thank you for sharing your books that represent your love of reading. I love reading and have a few I have read twice. You have influenced my list of books I have enjoyed very much. I finished Barbara Kingsolvers new book-Demon Copperhead. This is a page turner like my favorite The Poisonwood Bible. Jane Eyre, Rebecca I have read several times. Reading is addictive I love it.
Thanks for all the recommendations! Added them all to my reading list :) I can’t believe your career isn’t in literature…I thought you read and knew so much about books that it must also be your job!
1) Little Women / Alcott 2) Portrait of a Lady / James 3) The Woman in White / Collins 4) The Country Girls Trilogy / O’Brien 5) The Secret History / Tartt It definitely looks as though this list skews very female! Apropos of nothing, I love the photo of Faye Dunaway behind you.
Skews female? It still amazes me that literature is divided into genders. It's literature brilliantly written. It skews toward humanity. Or are you one of those ppl who won't read P. D. Woodhouse or Treasure Island cuz they're for boys? Narrow minded.
@@MsBettyRubble I love P.G. Wodehouse! And Stevenson and many other authors that identify as male! I was merely pointing out that nearly every title on my list included a female pronoun. I’m so sorry if I offended you by commenting on my own list!
I’ve never read The Waves, so I just added it to my monthly basket at the Book Depository. It sounds wonderful! Thank you again for the content you produce.
Delighted to learn about Mrs Engels which I did not know.. I identify with your occasional jadedness with reading. Then I remember that every novel,should tell a good story and I turn to the Victorians for this. Having reread Eliot a lot I go to Dickens and read sections. Then I love Margaret Forster’s fictional account of the lives of the Brownings. Lady’s Maid is a brilliant read if you have not discovered it. So are Fosters other works. And sometimes I leave fiction for a literary. Biography or a cultural history like Richard Holmes’s book The Age of Wonder. These are writers who refer to other writers in a way which renews my curiosity and depicts an exciting age in the history of ideas. Soon I am ready to go back to fiction. But usually I have one of each on the go. Thank your your informative and very personal videos. I always enjoy them.
I had the same exact experience on my first day of school. I had waited SO LONG and looked forward to it so much and then ... they didn't teach me reading that day.
the books that can and have gotten me out of slumps. Still Life With Woodpecker Tom Robbins, River Dogs Robert Olmstead (short Stories). Momento Moi Muriel Sparks. The Great Passage Shion Miura. Thanks for the great topic
hello dear Eric, I love the ideas of jotting down stuff about a book, can you mayby , if not too intrusive, you can read us a bit of your thoughts , so how you actually write about a book, what then do you write? and share that with us. ? I don't know how to journal about a book actually. Hope you understand me. Thanks again great vid. absolute fan of you ✨💞
Generally I copy down quotes I find striking or points I find interesting or even character descriptions (if it’s a book with a complicated plot/a lot of characters.) Then I sit down after to write about the book to consider it critically as well as giving my personal reflections/thoughts about it. You can see a lot of my responses to books like this on my personal blog: lonesomereader.com Hope this helps! 😊📚
Thanks, it was more out of necessity this morning as the neighbours on the other side of my library wall were being noisy and the other room I normally film in didn't have enough natural light. 😄
I'm kinda in this mood right now, I think I may give the Woolf a try. I never read her and should probably fix that haha. Thanks for these recommendations!
Book that made me love reading: “Harry Potter &the Sorcerer’s Stone” by JK Rowling My favorite series: Colleen McCullough’s “Masters of Rome” My favorite novel: “Hannibal” by Thomas Harris My favorite non-fiction book: “The Wordy Shipmates” by Sarah Vowell The best book I’ve read this year: “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” by Eliezer Yudkowsky
Required reading definitely put me off reading for a long time. The curriculum seemed to call for classical literature from Britain that wasn't relevant to suburban New Zealand in the 1990s.
1: “The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy “, Mark McCutcheon. 2: “The Unique and Its Property “, Max Stirner/ Landstreicher. 3: “The Bible Came from Arabia “, Kamal Salibi, plus his 3 other bible study books. 4: “No Treason: the Constitution of No Authority, 1,2, and 6”, Lysander Spooner. All non- fiction!
Hello! I have the Romanian edition of The Sea, The Sea. But never read anything by Iris Murdoch. Do you believe it would be the appropriate book to start reading Murdoch? Or you have another recommendation to start with? Thanks 😊😊😊
This comment is directed for: Sea loves me, which haves a picture of a crow on it...The stories of civilization and barbarity are told through a language that is precise and profound, he weaves together the living tradition of legend, poetry and song. Strangely, I deemed this to be a woman, but there was a song "a man named sue." Now, its Mia--I hope I am right, looking thru the lenses of crows as oppose to the 60's when the poemist tried to give leave-way to life's predictions when overall it was permeated as to what was expected in the future of the millennium Lisa
Tried to find a book club in my area today shockingly there isn’t one 🤷♀️ would love to chat about all the books I’m reading with likeminded peeps but it’s not to be 🫢
